Memory box
by wallowinthehallow
Summary: A fun short. Lorelai is sick, and takes a walk down memory lane.


Memory Box

by Miss Wallow

It was raining and gray. Lorelai woke up with a head ache and a sore throat, her eyes were puffy and her muscles ached. She was sick. She drudged around for the phone and called the Inn. She whined her complaint about her illness to Michel and informed him that he would be in charge for the day. She looked at the clock and realized that Luke would be expecting her for breakfast soon, again she dialed the phone.

"Lukes."Luke voice said on the end of the line.

"I'm sick." Lorelais gravely voice whined.

"Ya, you don't sound so hot."

"I?m siiiiiick." She said again.

"I get that." Luke said.

"Come take care of me." Lorelai whined.

"I would...I really would love to but today has been crazy, it must be the rain,  
haven?t had a break yet." He said.

She could hear the commotion in the back ground, and Caesar yelling at Luke to get off the phone. She didn?t want him to be busy, she wanted him home. She pouted so much that Luke could practically hear her lip sticking out on the other end.

"Listen. As soon as I can catch a break I will bring you some soup, until then, bed,  
hot tea and those magazines that I can't stand."Luke said.

"You're too good me.'" She sniffed wiping her nose on her Lucy pajamas.

"I'll be there when I can.. I have to go, love you." He said rushed. She heard him yelling at Kirk just before the phone went silent.

Lorelai flopped back into the her bed defeated. She hated being sick. She hated the rain. She riffled through the stack of out of date fashion magazines on her night stand and found one that she had only read maybe three times and flipped through it. It was two hours later that she was awoken by the feel of lips on her forehead. The magazine lay open on her chest...she didn?t remember dozing off, but she guessed that is why they called it dozing off.

"How you feeling?" Luke said.

"Better now." Lorelai said leaning up for a kiss.

"Nuh-uh, no way. Not until you are feeling better. I am not getting sick." Luke said pulling away from her.

"Uh...Luke...in sickness and in health remember?"

"Yeah, I said I would be with you, in sickness and health, I didn't say a damn thing about kissing you in it." Luke said teasing her.

"You're mean." She said.

"Like you weren't looking for loop holes in those vows too."Luke said.

"I was just trying to figure out how to get to richer from poorer." She said smiling slightly.

"Here." Luke said grabbing a Styrofoam container from behind him. "Eat this you'll feel better. And I got you this...and...some Thera Flu and...I rented you Willy Wonka." He said handing her a Cosmo, a DVD and a box of Thera Flu.

"You...bought Cosmo?"She said suspicious.

"I thought you might need something new to read."He said.

"You aren?t staying are you." She accused.

"I'm sorry I can't, I have to get back there who knows what could be happening now." He admitted knowing his wife was about to whine.

"I'm siiiiiiiick." She persisted.

" Iiiiiiii know you are. I am going to get out of there as quickly as I can. This should keep you busy until then." He said getting up from the bed. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Feel better crazy lady." She watched him walk out of their bed room and sat in bed sulking for a moment.

She was hungry. She sat up and ate the soup and surprisingly felt a little better. She kicked her feet out from under the covers and slung them over the edge of the bed, her feet felt around until they found her slippers and she walked around the house for a while. She wentto the desk at the bottom of the stairs and looked through the mail. She sat down and paid a couple of bills, then puttered around some more. She put on the kettle and tidied up in the kitchen though now that she was married to OCD man, there really wasn't a lot of picking up to be done. Luke was extremely neat and organized, the few fights that she and Luke had, had were over her poor organizational skills. She always won though, stating that her quirks were why he loved her, and he couldn?t argue against that point. The whistle of the tea pot snapped Lorelai out of her stare, it seemed as though she had been momentarily mesmerized by the rain. She finished making her tea and went back upstairs to her room. She sat in bed and put in her new Joss Stone CD and flipped through the magazine, she hummed along to the song. It was about an hour later that she decided she had learned all the ways to please her man sufficiently and gave up on the magazine.

She thought about calling Rory, until she realized that it was 4 o'clock on a Tuesday and Rory was most certainty in class.Though she was feeling better, Lorelai felt restless, she wasn't the greatest at just hanging out and not doing anything. The small amount of banter she had today was not filling her need. She found herself muttering to herself and wandering around her room.She stopped infront of her half of the closet messy and disheveled as always. Luke begged her several times a week to 'At least manage to get the door shut', but once a pack rat always a pack rat, and some habits were hard to break. She decided that, that would be her project for the rest of the day.

She decided to start at the floor and work her way up. She began sorting the her shoes into twos. "It's like Donna Karens Arc." She said amusing herself.

It was about an hour later that she had all of her shoes, most of her purses and various other finds scattered across the room. "It has to get worse before it can get better." She mumbled to herself as she looked around at her mess. She leaned deep into the closet again and came back with an old copy paper box. She knew it's contents without opening it. She smiled as she ran her hand across the top of the old tattered box. The box had began as a cigar box she swiped from her father, and it seemed to grow with the years. It had, had many incarnations over the years, from the first cigar box, to several different shoe boxes, and finally this box that laid in her lap now. She picked up the box and carried it over to the bed and sat it in front of her. She gingerly lifted the lid and took in a deep breath. She could smell the years pouring out of the box, and every memory that laid with in came back fresh into her mind.

She reached into the box and pulled out a smaller box, inside were hundreds of movie and concert ticket stubbs. She had kept them through the years. Many were from first dates, others from last dates. There was the two stubbs from Rorys first movie, The Sound of Music,she laughed a little to herself. She remembered the person next to her commenting that ?That little girl won?t make it through the movie without crying.? Lorelai almost stood up and stuck her tongue out when at the end of the movie her three year old had not only not cried, but was also awake and asking questions about it as the lights came up. 'Mommy,do I wear curtains?' She said.

Then she found the concert stub from the Duran Duran concert that Chris took her to the night he say those three words that lead to the three letter word. She could almost smell the night. It had been the perfect date. Chris went even though he thought Duran Duran to be ?over rated? pretty boys. He picked her up, she changed in the back seat of his car into non-Emily approved clothing, they drove up to New York City to see the band play in Central Park. It was the first time she had ever been to NYC without the over powering grasp of her parents. They ate hot dogs from a vendor, something Emily strictly forbid, they stood as close as they could as the band played Lorelais favorite songs. Chris bought her a T-shirt and a bandana. They listened to the Hungrey Like the Wolf album all the way home, and sang at the top of their lungs. They got back into Hartford late that night, and since they were both dead when they got home anyway, they decided to stay out all night. They parked Chris car out by the lake and laid on the roof of his car talking about the day that they would get away from their parents and ?society?. It was then he told her he loved her. Three words that lead her to give in, and as ?Ordinary World? played on the stereo, Lorelai and Chris took the step that at the time she thought she was ready for. Looking back there were times that she wished that night haden?t been so perfect, that the moon wasn?t so bright, that Chris eyes didn?t hold her gaze as steady as he said those words, but they did, and they did. Those moments didn?t last long, after all it was one of there then frequent romps that lead to Rory and she would never change a thing about having her daughter. Lorelai held that ticket stub for a moment and reminisced for a moment, not because she wanted to go back, but because it took all the things in this box, all the memories good and bad to bring her to where she was. She took a deep breath and continued to go through the box.

She pulled out the outfit she made for Rory out of her old Bangles t-shirt. Lorelai remembered the fight she had with her mother over that outfit. Lorelai dressed Rory in it the day they got to take her home. Emily saw it and launched into her lecture. 'That is not a proper outfit for her homecoming' Emily demanded to her daughter. Lorelai remembered that moment as the first moment that she played her newest trump card with Emily. 'She is my daughter, I am her mother, not you, she will wear what I dress her in.' Emily couldn't argue. It was then that Lorelai first really realized that she was a mother,  
she had carried a baby for nine months, she had been in labor for 26 hours, she had given birth even, and it wasn't until she defended herself in that moment, that she really realized that she didn't just have a baby, she was a mother.

There was a story Rory had written in school when she was eight in which she claimed that 'When I grow up I want to be a back up singer for the Go-go's.' To this day it made Lorelai laugh. The box held so many memories for her as she pulled each item out it was like a slide show of her life playing in her head. She found the guitar pick she caught at the Metallica concert she went to with a guy named Rick, he was wild, he loved rock and roll, drove a Harley and was very easy on the eyes. Their first date was their last. Lorelai remembered when she got home that night, she was a little tipsy and had even smoked a couple of cigarettes at the show. She paid the sitter and was almost home free when Rory came into view. She walked over to give her mother a hug and the words she said crystallized what Lorelai already knew. 'Mommy you smell funny.' Lorelai couldn't see Rick again, though most 22 year old women would have given almost anything to go out with him again, she declined. She had a six year old with a good sense of smell and Lorelai smelled trouble. She made a promise to herself then that Rory would never hear about, see, or meet another man until Lorelai was sure that he was Mr. Happily Ever After. Thus began an 8 year dry spell. She didn't resent it though, she had only one responsibility and that was to keep Rory safe and happy.

As Lorelai continued to pull memories out of her box she found a strip of pictures that she and Sookie had taken at a photobooth in Atlantic City soon after they met. A key from the first room she and Rory lived in at the Inn before Mia fixed them up the tool shed. There was her first pay stub, what she considered to be the proudest moment in her professional career. It was the day she realized that she and Rory were going to be just fine. There was a parking ticket from a cute cop, that instead of a warning he gave her his number. A menu from Lukes before he was ever 'her Luke'. A book of matches from a restaurant she went with Max. Playbills, letters, cards, grade slips, Rorys drawings. All had memories of a different time and place. She reached into the box and pulled out an envelope, and knew what was inside before she read it. Scribbled on the outside was 'Mom' inside was a letter Rory had written to her when she was twelve after a particularly heart breaking visit from her father.Lorelai remembered crying herself to sleep that night and waking up the next morning with that note laying on the pillow beside her.

_Dear Mom, Please don?t cry, it isn?t so bad just you and me. We will be ok mom, I know it. Maybe one day we will be a family, but for now you and I are just fine. I love you. Rory._

Lorelai hated that she had let her daughter see her so upset and tried to keep a more level head around Christopher after that.

Lorelai laid on to her stomach and tipped the box over spilling the remaining contents in front of her. She picked up a photograph with a sticky note on it and looked at it. She forgot she had put this in here. It was the picture that Rachel took of she and Luke at the Fire Light festival. She found it in her mail box the day Rachel left with a note on it simply saying 'Wake Up.' I was four more years before she did. The last thing in the box had been put there a year ago. It was the invitation to she and Lukes wedding. She smiled at the sight of their names on the front.

_Lucas Daniel Danes and Lorelai Victoria Gilmore_

_Request the honor of your presence _

_As they exchange vows June the Fifteenth Two Thousand and Five _

_At the Dragonfly Inn _

_Dress is Casual_

A smile meant only for Luke swept across her face, she looked around at all the things from her past. Some memories were painful, others funny. Each of them important,  
it was because of all that happened in her life that she was able to sit there today with a ring on her finger and a love in her heart. She would not be the woman Luke loved with out each of those memories. She didn't keep the box because she wanted to go back to any place in time. She kept them because she wanted to remember the journey, to be thankful for all she had today. Lorelai looked around at the mess she had made and then looked at the clock, it was nearly eight Luke would be home soon and she had made a disaster. She started to put the contents of the box back and when she was done she reached for the lid and put it on the box. She laid back on the bed for a moment thinking and as she was about to put the box away she ran her hand under her pillow and found a note in Lukes writing. 'Feel better soon. Remember I love you. I'll be home soon. Luke'

Lorelai smiled as she opened the box back up and put the note inside, so that on another rainy day she could look back and remember how she felt at that moment.

The End


End file.
